The BCM4329 includes both FM transmit and receive capabilities. FM transmit enables consumers to stream music directly from a personal media players (PMPs) or mobile phone to car stereos or home theater systems without having to purchase special adapters or use bulky cables. FM receive is already a popular feature that enables consumers to obtain real-time traffic information as well as listen to music, news and sports broadcasts on their mobile phones.

I'm not interested in listening to radio or news—although many have been demanding this capability in iPods for ages—but I can't wait for the built-in transmission to the car stereo, as well as real-time traffic information data everywhere, independently of the 3G connectivity. [Broadcom via AppleInsider via 9to5]

Update: Apple Insider say the previous chipsets had potential FM functionality as well, but Apple's declined to switch it on.

According to the intel, the next iPhone is due in June (as pretty much everyone has predicted) and it will feature 7.2Mbps 3G speeds (probably) and U-Verse support. In addition, AT&T says that "Apple's 3.0 software should tell us where the iPhone platform is going." We think that cryptic message is referring to the video capabilities spotted in the new firmware.

Obviously there's nothing too crazy here, but BGR also thinks it's possible we'll see a full QWERTY-keyed iPhone model—if they were reading their source's winks and nudges correctly. [BGR]

Dr. Debby Herbenick—author and sex expert—liked our iPhone 3.0 guide so much that she wrote a great phone sex guide inspired by it. Which got me thinking: Can the new OS make the iPhone the best sexual toy ever?

Actually, I think it can. Or at least, it has all the elements to turn it into the most sophisticated sexual machine I can imagine.

Let's start with the basics: First, the new iPhone OS 3.0 adds a rumble application programming interface. Basically, this will allow developers to fine tune the vibration of the iPhone itself. A perfect sexual toy application would be able to store vibration patterns to suit the needs and mood of the user.

But more importantly, it will also receive them wirelessly, in real time: One iPhone running my hypothetical Shiny Shiny Sexual Toy™ would be able to control the other using a simple graphical user interface—touch me, baby—over the network.

In this perfect sexual toy application, there will be a list of sexual partners you can play with across the internet. It will also allow to record sessions and also talk using the new Voice Over IP communication at the same time you are playing. Like the games demonstrated yesterday, but for adults.

And that's just the start. Imagine the possibilities of push notifications and peer-to-peer networking: Woman walks into airport lounge with the sexual toy app in "receive mode." Another iPhone sexual toy user is scanning the application and detects her in proximity, so he or she sends a notification, inviting her to play.

They don't have to get directly into the action, of course. Like Dr. Herbenick says, there are preliminaries, like in every sexual activity. This is where text chat, profiles, and avatars get into scene. A conversation will ensue and, if things get exciting, they can start playing using the vibration mode.

Of course, you are probably thinking, it's ok to play with the vibration mode in the iPhone itself if you are in the privacy of your home... but in public?

That's where the new Device Control interface and the Bluetooth connectivity comes in: The sexual toy would be able to turn the iPhone into the toy itself but it would also be capable of controlling compatible devices—small or big vibrators or chinese balls or whatever device you can think about.

Of course, there's the matter of doing this kind of things in public, but hey, I'm European, and you know we are all pervs who love sex in public (and hey, you can always run into the bathroom, as long as you keep yourself within wireless range).

Sure, some will say that Apple will never allow for this because they don't have adult-oriented apps. Maybe that will change with the new parental controls for applications. And yes, toy-aided cybersex is nothing compared to the real thing, but seriously, even while sometimes they are fun, one-night stands are just way too messy for me. Knowing that I'm having casual sex with someone in such close proximity will be a definitive turn on. And who knows, perhaps the start of something else. [Thanks for the inspiration, Debby]

And if any developer wants to do this, I can design the user interface.

Update: Dr. Herbenick send us her notes about the article.

1) Yes - the ability for developers to fine tune the vibration is key
- and even more important, to allow users to do so. Women vary
enormously and while low intensity is key for some, others need full
throttle. (Also, if men are using vibration, some intensities are too
much, too soon, if you know what I mean).

2) Allowing users to record sessions is very cool... of course, I'd
suggest a feature like in gchat that allows users to know if a session
is on or off record, so both people are consenting to a permanent
record. Another option is to allow you to record your own (solitary)
session in the sense that you can "teach" your phone app what you like
(like the Sasi vibrator that "learns" your preferences) so it can give
you similar vibrations the next time.

3) Push and peer-peer are what remind me of the Sex Toy Tales story I
wrote about in the comments.

4) Device Control is key. And great cross-selling if you can develop
an app and high quality sex toys that work with the app (as you know,
there's great variation is the quality of toys on the market).

I really hate the greasy look and feeling of the glossy 3G back after you've used it for more than 30 seconds, so I'd really like a matte backing. Anyway, the images are supposedly from China, etched with a brand new model number.

A few reasons to be skeptical: Crappy reception with metal is one of the reasons why Apple went to plastic in the first place (if there's really metal in it), and it's really early for a product likely on a June release cycle to already be exposed. And all the other usual possible fakery issues with Apple leaks.

Why it's also at least partly believable: iPod Observer leaked the iPhone 3G's black glossy back months ahead of time last year (though not quite this early in the cycle).

Either way, I like it. [iPod Observer, Mac Rumors]

Android and especially the Pre have made background apps and the true multitasking they allow look a lot sexier, and the iPhone's one-app-at-a-time paradigm more restrictive, even with the innovative compromise of push notifications.

Push notifications, for the uninitiated, would allow apps like AIM to send you notifications (through Apple) of say, new IMs via an SMS-like prompt, even while the application isn't running. So you could kind of think of the app as running in the cloud, essentially. Not multitasking by any means, but for some an acceptable compromise on battery-draining background apps.

MacRumors says that if what they're hearing is true, and Apple allows apps to run in the background, it would happen with the iPhone 3.0 software. On the current iPhones, it would likely be restricted to one or two processes at a time, but with the beefier hardware of the next-gen iPhone, it'd be less restricted.

Having apps actually run in the background might actually be worth the longer wait. [MacRumors]

The new iPhone 2.2 is here and we've been playing with it all night and morning. Like Apple says in their documentation, the stability and performance seems to have improved, but the spotlight falls on the new and improved Maps application, which has been polished up thanks to its public transportation and walking directions, as well as the smooth, fast Street View, and many other interface details. There are a lot of unexpected new features—no, no cut and paste—and fixes as well, and we've tried them all here:

Enhancements to Maps

• Public transport and walking mode: The most impressive part, at least for a public transport user like me, is the new public transport and walking directions mode. They work as you can expect, without many glitches. This mode has all the information you need, at least here in New York, and it showed me the fastest way to get from my house to Gawker offices (cleverly avoiding the damn 6, which is always arriving late for me).

Not only it showed the route clearly, with nice new icons, but it also gave something unexpected: subway timetables. As you can see in the gallery, it tells you what's the departure time for the next Manhattan-bound L train, telling you how many minutes you have to get there on time. It can also calculate the total time of your trip, which is always useful.

• Street view: It works great. You can't access street view by clicking on any place in the map, but the way Apple has implemented it kinda makes sense. When you do a search (or drop a pin) an new little guy icon will appear in the address pop-up. You just have to click on it and the map will zoom and smoothly change into Street View mode, rotating the display to the left automatically. From there you can navigate easily, using one finger to look around the panorama and clicking on the overlaid arrows to navigate. It works hot-butter-over-pancakes smooth. We'd like to be able to access the mode by just finding our current location and switching it on though.

• Other new features: When you drop a pin, it displays the exact address of the location. You can also share any location via email very easily, just by clicking on the location itself and hitting a Share this location button. It's a quick cut and paste substitute (of course, no cut and paste yet).

iTunes and App Store

• Podcasts over the air: As far as we can tell, they work flawlessly for both audio and video. I accessed the new feature and I was downloading podcasts in no time. Unfortunately, the artificially-imposed 3G network 10MB limit is easy to reach for video content, such as the TED Talks that download fine over Wi-Fi. One good thing: It leaves the podcasts in a queue so the next time you get into a Wi-Fi hot spot, they will download automagically.

• App store reorganization: The UI has been sightly reorganized and polished. The categories, for example, now display bigger and with icons. As I speculated in our iPhone 2.2 rumor round-up, the icons shown seem to show the top free application.

Fixes

• Improved stability and performance in Safari: In my informal testing, it feels a bit faster to me, especially on Javascript heavy web sites.

• Resolved isolated issues with scheduled email: Wasn't able to test this one, as I don't use scheduled checking to save on battery life.

• Improving wide HTML email display: If you've ever encountered this problem, you'll know it's extremely annoying. When somebody sends you an HTML styled email, sometimes it displays very long lines and tiny text. I received a mail like that the other day from my sister and went immediately to try it. Unfortunately, the fix hasn't worked for me on that one, but it did work in another email I got from a company. Weird.

• Decreased in call set-up an call drops: Too soon to tell.

• Improved sound quality on Voicemail messages: I saw this yesterday so I went and tried them in 2.1. Indeed, there were pops and hisses. After the update I tried under 2.2 and yes, they do have better sound quality.

Other little additions

• Clicking the home button while you are in the home screen takes you to the first page of the home, which is very welcome, as that's where I store my main applications and I have several pages of additional apps and page links.

• Safari: They have streamlined the interface for address and search, like we already saw in previous leaks.

• Preference to turn auto-correction on and off: This is a welcome addition for me, because quite frankly, no matter what Jason says, my iPhone corrects fuck with duck every single time. So duck auto-correction for a little while. I'm going to ducking see if it affects my ducking speed or not.

Verdict: It works fairly well, feels smooth, and the new features are a must have—especially the new Maps application. Ducking good. Go get it now.

According to their site, WinPwn 2.0.0.1 has the following features:

- Support for both 1.1.4 and 2.0

- Custom Image Support

- Custom Payload Support

- 3g iPhone support

[WinPwn and Rapidshare Mirror]

- It auto-finds the bl39 and bl46 files better, if they’re on your computer.
- It creates the ~/Library/iTunes/Device Support/ folder if not present, which should help with some 1600 errors people have been having.
- Many people have reported the PwnageTool not starting up at all (the icon never stops bouncing). This issue should be resolved now.
- The Sparkle AppCast URL is fixed in this version, so automatic updates should work for future releases.

If you successfully jailbroke and unlocked your iPhone with OS 2.0 with the previous one, there's no need for you to use this version. Otherwise, you can download from here or here.

We can't wait for the tool to be released. [iPhone Dev Blog]

Breno MacMasi, one of the Brazilian guys who achieved this, told us how it works:

Our procedure consist in using one SIM adapter to simulate a fake IMSI test card. Instead of the AT&T IMSI like in the universals.

In other words, like the original SIM card hacks for the iPhone classic, this method forges the International Mobile Subscriber Identity, making the phone believe it's working in the network in which it's supposed to work. There's no word yet on the availability of this hack, but we will keep all of those who don't want to pay roaming charges updated. [Techguru]

PC World says that the result is remarkable knowing that AT&T's HSDPA/UMTS network is very power-hungry because voice calls use the more battery-demanding 3G band. Apple's own tests give the new iPhone a 5 hour talk time over 3G, so that's 38 minutes more. By contrast, the Samsung Instinct—which runs on EVDO—switches to CDMA for voice, which they say it uses less power. In theory—as the results show.

They also claim that the iPhone 3G's battery performance is lower than the iPhone over 2G, which is true. But that's like comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended). They didn't test the latest iPhone's battery life over 2G networks, which Apple rates at 10 hours (the same as the iPhone classic). Also, these tests don't compare the iPhone to some options available elsewhere in the world—like Nokia's—but it gives a good idea of where the iPhone 3G stands against the competition. [PC World]

You can download from here and here.

If you were wondering how I was doing push email tests on iPhone OS 2.0 and Vodafone UK, this is the reason why. The code wizard commandos at the iPhone Dev Team have been working on this non-stop since the early days of beta testing. In fact, I had iPhone OS 2.0 running on my iPhone since last week. That was version 5A345, two below 5A347, but identical in functionality.

Now that the official iPhone OS 2.0 is out, the iPhone Dev Team will release their Pwnage tool for everyone to unlock and jailbreak their iPhones soon, although the specific date/time is not firm yet. It may not be as interesting as before—since most countries now have the iPhone and it will be impossible to buy without doing a contract first—but people looking to install unsigned applications and buy pay-as-you-go cards while traveling—instead of roaming—will find it very useful.

And besides, we don't get tired of seeing the Death Star exploding again and again. [iPhone Dev Team Portal]

The whole thing feels like having iTunes in the palm of your hand. Once you authenticate your remote by entering a four-digit code—the iPhone or iPod touch needs to be in the same wireless network—it's all a matter of opening the application and starting to surf your iTunes library.

There are five sections on the remote:

Playlists
Here you have access to your personal playlists, just like in iTunes. This includes the smart playlists as well. All changes in iTunes are reflected in real time on the remote, just as you would expect.

Artists
This is a browser view by artist, which looks identical to the one on the iPod.

Albums
Same as Artists. Here you can see the artwork, streamed directly from iTunes.

Search
The search engine is a little bit weird but works great. It's live, so when you start writing, the results start to appear on the screen. However, you can't click directly on the list. When you are done writing whatever you're searching for, you click on the result list and it activates. Then you can scroll through it, with all your results neatly organized by Albums, Artists and Songs.

More
Here you will find access to the rest of the media in iTunes, from audiobooks to music videos and, of course, movies.

You can associate several libraries to the remote. There is a Settings button on the top left corner. When you click on it, you can Add Library and also turn on the Stay Connected option, which is listed under Performance. I don't know if this is related to Wi-Fi power consumption or just to the fact that, while being always connected, you won't need to reconnect after your iPhone wakes up.

There are no delays in the operation so far. Everything works fast and smoothly. Now, the only thing I want is having playback on the iPhone. Not just control iTunes remotely, but actually accessing the media from the iPhone or iPod touch, via Wi-Fi or 3G network. That would be the key to avoid having too little space: get an unlimited data plan and just access everything on your computer remotely. We can only hope that this is what Steve & Co. have in mind for the next version.

The App Store works great on the iPhone 2.0. Fast. Beautiful interface. Simple. It's localized, so you will require an account from the iTunes country you are accessing from (my Spanish iTunes account didn't allow me to download things from the App Store in the UK).

I'm installing the AIM client now. Doing video. Keep checking back.

6:28EST

The installation was flawless. The icon appears on your iPhone screen instantly and you can see a progress mini-bar showing how much is left. Over wireless, AIM for iPhone installed in a few seconds. Another video coming up now.

6:38EST
The navigation is very easy. The whole mechanism is more straightforward than Installer.app. You just use the store to buy things and the updates are presented on a dedicated screen. At the beginning I looked for a place to uninstall applications but nothing was there. The answer is simple: just go into the iPhone home screen, hold an icon for a few seconds and the X to delete the application will appear, just like when you add a web page to the homescreen.

6:47EST
Apparently some readers are reporting that some applications are not available in certain countries in the iTunes App store. I've yet to find this problem in the iPhone App Store, though. If you want me to try any apps, let me know.

7:04EST
I'm downloading applications left, right and center, including the new iTunes Remote application.

7:16EST

The search engine does it by keywords, apparently. New video on all the sections coming in a few minutes.

7:35EST
Here's how you uninstall any application on the iPhone. It couldn't be more simple.

7:39EST
Going to buy an app now. Probably Monkey Ball, but ping me with tips in AIM if you think something is better.

7:50EST
Second part of the walkthrough.

8:13EST
I've downloaded Monkey Ball but it's not working on my iPhone classic. Going to back it up to iTunes. Video of this coming up now.

The backup process started automatically as soon as I connected it, but it's taking a long time to complete.

8:52EST
Sorry for the delay, but I've been playing with the iPhone remote control and other apps. This is just too much fun. Feels like Xmas money. The quality of some of these applications is just amazing. A post on the purchasing process, which works exactly as the free stuff, one-click and install, is coming up in few minutes.

9:29EST
Here's a brief clip on the purchase of Monkey Ball. Very simple as I said, one click. It took ages to install because apparently it is really big.

Stay tuned for the Remote hand-on.

10:39EST
The remote hands-on is live here.

At the end, last Friday didn't bring the iPhone 2.0 Golden Master for final developer testing, "small glitches" apparently being the cause of the delay. But in the meantime, we have been playing for a long time with these two.

Everything has been trouble-free so far. The iPhone applications are fast (the iTunes Music Store actually feels faster than before, as does Safari), there have been no errors or glitches, and, except the fact that the content restriction policies still don't seem to be working (I activated the restrictions for Safari and I still could access several of my favorite porn sites—thanks for the links, Jason), everything seems to click just fine.

In iTunes, the MobileMe section is there, but not active yet (perhaps because I don't have a MobileMe account to try it myself). The applications tab in the iPhone control panel is there, however, although obviously there are no apps to try it yet. In the iTunes preferences, there are three changes: automatically check for available downloads, age gaming restrictions, and—the most interesting of them all—"look for iPhone and iPod touch remotes."

Unfortunately, since we don't have the remote application yet, we couldn't try this one. July 11 is not arriving soon enough.

• Stunning, console quality graphics

• Twelve beautifully crafted tracks

• The famous Crash Bandicoot cast of characters

• A host of weapons, items and power-ups

• Fully configurable controls

It's not Mario Kart, but it will do until Apple merges with Nintendo. [Polarbit — Thanks Virginie]